I’ve just completed Eugene Peterson’s improbably titled, Eat This Book and I cannot recommend it highly enough. This “conversation in the art of spiritual reading” both values Scripture while helping us see its accessibility. The b...

J. P. Moreland of Talbot Seminary was the keynote speaker at this year’s meetings of the Evangelical Homiletics Society. He took the opportunity to offer a proposal for “apologetic preaching.” While such an approach is not new, Moreland seemed to...

Larry Perkins, the President of my seminary, just posted an interesting piece on the effect that Bible translation has on biblical preaching and interpretation. In practice, pastors and preachers seem to be placing less attention than ever on the Greek and Hebrew...

I suppose it is understandable that we tend to think of God’s judgment in negative terms. After all, one aspect of his judgment is that it comes as punishment for sin. Having said that, there are instances of judgment in the Bible that ought to be seen as ac...

I read a particularly intelligent response to Richard Dawkins’ fundamentalist atheism in my morning newspaper. Margaret Somerville is becoming as a critic of Dawkins, partly because she doesn’t seem to be coming from a Christian perspective. As foundin...

Here are a few notes taken from Alistair McGrath’s lecture at the International Congress on Preaching in April. The address, titled “Preaching Truth in the Shadow of the Idol of Science” was directed at the recent writings of Richard Dawkins, Dan...

Over the last number of months I have been studying and preaching through the Sermon on the Mount. It’s become clear to me that Jesus’ prayer that God’s Kingdom would come “on earth as it is in heaven” is a key to interpreting the who...

It has been my pleasure to participate in the publication of a small book written by our faculty at Northwest Baptist Seminary. The book, Being Church: Exploration in Christian Community was recently published in honor of the former Regional Director of t...

Here we go again. It turns out that the newest archeological discovery to discredit the resurrection of Jesus is not so new. Serious archeologists, both secular and Christian, have known about the tomb for years and have discounted its relevance. That isn’t ...

I ran into the same problem with two of my students yesterday. Both of them submitted sermon plans that required a little help. When I suggested alternate and more appropriate ways of approaching the text, they both agreed with me. The problem, they said, was that...

Here’s a link to a truly helpful website offering a wealth of information on biblical backgrounds. Follow the Rabbi is a place to get into the Hebrew mindset so that we can appreciate the biblical worldview more helpfully. “Jesus lived like a jew, talk...

One of my goals over the next few weeks is to feature some of the ideas that were presented in papers at this past month’s meetings of the Evangelical Homiletics Society. One of the more interesting papers was written by Brandon Cash, pastor of Oceanside Chr...

I recently read Michael Pasquarello’s Sacred Rhetoric, an attempt to describe preaching as a theological and pastoral practice in the church (Sacred Rhetoric). In Pasquarello’s view, the practice of preaching has lost its connection with its r...

Yesterday I spent some time trying to help a pastor with a sermon based on the Mark 6:14-26, the well-known narrative of the death of John the Baptist. The obvious approach to this text would be to talk about Herod’s abuse of power and the importance of bein...

In my private reading of Scripture I recently came across a passage that got my attention. Ezekiel 2:1-3:11 reminded me again of the relevance of the Bible. Every preacher ought to pray over this one.

“Mortal man, I am sending you to the peopl...